Dugout canoe resurrected from lake

Thursday

Sep 19, 2013 at 5:43 PM

When Koen Ergle first saw the rounded end of a nearly black log poking out of the sand in the lake near his home, the 7-year-old thought it was a giant muscle. But it soon became clear it was a near-pristine dugout canoe possibly hundreds of years old.

By Carlos E. MedinaCorrespondent

When Koen Ergle first saw the rounded end of a nearly black log poking out of the sand in the lake near his home, the 7-year-old thought it was a giant mussel. But it soon became clear it was a near-pristine dugout canoe possibly hundreds of years old.Thursday, officials from the state, the Marion County Museum of History and Archeology and several media outlets converged on the site to document the canoe and watch as it began a journey to its new home, where it will be slowly dried. It eventually will be displayed at the museum.While more than a dozen people milled around the canoe at the edge of Owen Lake near Ocklawaha, Koen was more interested in building a sandcastle.

"I thought it was cool," Koen said about his discovery.When asked what he thought about native Americans having lived in the area, Koen said it explained who knocked down an old fence nearby."Probably they destroyed the fence right there. No, seriously, it's gone," Koen said.The canoe was discovered a few weeks ago during a scuba lesson Koen was getting from his grandfather, Ken Ergle, a former Marion County sheriff.Koen was in about 8 feet of water when he saw the piece of wood. His grandfather thought it was just an old stump or a piece of an old dock and tried to move on, but Koen insisted they take a closer look."He was on my secondary respirator and I could hear him making noises and pointing to the wood," Ken Ergle said. "I started fanning the sand off and still wasn't quite sure what it was."Koen said it looked like a canoe.After two weekends of digging, what emerged was indeed a nearly 20-foot long canoe."This is very complete, this is in very good shape. These are the ones we can really learn from," said Julia Byrd, senior archaeologist for the Bureau of Archaeological Research, Division of Historical Resources, who was on site Thursday.Byrd measured, photographed and took samples from the canoe. Some of the samples will be used to carbon date the canoe and others will be used to determine what kind of wood was used."Many of the canoes found in Florida turn out to be made of pine, rather than cypress," Byrd said. "It's really hard to tell if they are prehistoric or historic. We used to think that the more refined canoes came later, but that is not always the case. People have been living in this area for thousands of years, so that is why we are doing carbon dating."It will take several months before the results are known.Koen also found a shard of pottery near the canoe, which is thought to be up to 2,000 years old. Marion County has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years."We just moved here two months ago. It's amazing to think all the history that has gone on in this area," said Nick Ergle, Koen's father.The family decided to donate the canoe to the Marion County Museum of History and Archeology."We are just tickled that the family decided to donate it to the museum. What we are trying to do is get nice quality finds from Marion County. This is an extremely good quality find," said Lee Brown, who is affiliated with the museum.The canoe will eventually go on display at the museum, but not too soon. The drying process may take up to two years."If it's not dried properly, you will get horrible cracking and checking. We will wrap it in plastic and draw the moisture out of it as slowly as possible," Byrd said.Despite being submerged for possibly centuries, the wood still showed signs of how the vessel was made, as charred areas could be seen on the dugout.Fire was used to burn out and make the wood easier to remove, forming the concave interior."You wonder what happened to the folks on that canoe. Maybe they went out hunting in the nearby prairie and never made it back. You just don't know, but it gets your mind working," Ken Ergle said.While the canoe took most of the attention Thursday, Koen wanted people to know about the other treasures he has found in the lake."I found an old can, old bricks and three golf balls," he said.